Blog
Infrastructure and Growth (2)
25th March 2009
A hat tip to my colleague Jon Mace for spotting this rather good BBC news article that considers the role that investment in infrastructure can have in sustaining and promoting economic growth. It is a good example of how government spending (fiscal policy) can affect both aggregate demand and long run aggregate supply. And it raises important questions about how such projects are funded.
There are some important demand and supply-side concepts embedded into the article including:
Infrastructure
economic growth
competitiveness
stimulus
standard of living
network
public sector
private sector
assets
funding
bonds
This article might also be useful when teaching the essentials of cost-benefit analysis.
See also this piece about America’s crumbling economy
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.